Meet Our Exhibitors: Anna Sutton, Co-Founder and CEO of The Data Refinery
As the curtain comes down on 2024’s eCommerce Expo and Technology for Marketing, we sat down with Anna Sutton, Co-founder & CEO of data and analytics platform The Data Refinery to talk about the challenges eCommerce retailers are facing ahead of peak season and the importance of industry events in bringing people together.
What industry trends excited you the most at this year’s eCommerce Expo and Technology for Marketing?
I know that AI is vastly overused and hyped, but I was excited to see some real progress with the commercial implementation of AI and data-based tools. Obviously, I have a personal interest in data, but the thing that’s always struck me is that so much talent is wasted because manual, time-consuming tasks fill up our to-do lists, leaving us little time to get really creative and drive results.
What are the biggest challenges facing eCommerce retailers heading into Q4 and peak season?
Well, we all know that the market has been tough. As we head into Christmas trading it will be critical to spot opportunities quickly and respond. Keeping pricing right to ensure margins are managed, whilst keeping an eye on sell-through rate is one thing. The potential to go viral on TikTok shop is something else altogether. Managing demand, stock, pricing, and channels and responding to trends across them all to hit the target is a big challenge as we fragment further across selling channels and unpredictable new audiences.
What is most exciting to you about the eCommerce and digital marketing industry right now?
There are so many ways to talk to your customers and potential customers. If you can be truly creative and targeted, you can achieve wild success. There’s nothing else like seeing a campaign you’ve created take off and now there are more ways than ever to make that happen!
Why is it important to bring the industry together at events like eCommerce Expo and Technology for Marketing?
Learning from others' successes and mistakes is always a valuable thing to do. Likewise hearing stories about how other people are harnessing new technologies and techniques to boost their trading gets our imagination and creative side going. Events like eCommerce Expo always feel like they’re full of potential – which is exciting!
What’s the best piece of advice you would give to new people joining the industry?
New people joining the industry bring new ideas – whether that’s a new perspective from the industry they’re joining from or a fresh look at ways of doing things from the next generation. Celebrate your differences, don’t be in a rush to conform to how everyone else seems to be doing it. Listen and learn from them yes, but think about what you have to offer that’s unique.
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